Thursday Apple Rumors: Apple Could Destroy Console Gaming

by Christopher Freeburn | February 14, 2013 1:54 pm

Thursday Apple Rumors: Apple Could Destroy Console Gaming

[1]Here are your Apple rumors[2] and AAPL news items for today:

Set-Top Threat: An engineer who helped create Microsoft‘s (NASDAQ:MSFT[3]) Xbox gaming console says that Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL[4]) could wipeout the gaming console industry[5], TechRadar notes. Nat Brown is warning console gaming leaders Microsoft, Sony (NYSE:SNE[6]) and Nintendo (PINK:NTDOY[7]) that the introduction of an Apple-branded TV set or set top box could devastate their business. The reason Apple would prove so lethal, Brown argues, is that it offers a platform for third party game developers to make money through its app store. An Apple-branded TV or set top box would presumably allow for the downloading of gaming apps from the App Store in a similar manner to the iPad and iPhone. The chance to obtain revenue from apps will send third-party game developers rushing to design apps for the Apple device, quickly creating a gaming ecosystem that consoles could not compete with.

Kiwi Buy: Police officers in New Zealand will soon get Apple devices[8] under a deal between the nation’s government and Vodafone (NASDAQ:VOD[9]), Forbes notes. More than 6,000 police officers will receive iPhones, while 3,900 will receive and iPad in addition to their iPhone. The deal will cost $4.3 million during the first three months, and an expected total of $159 million over ten years. iPhones and iPad beat out competing equipment from Blackberry (NASDAQ:BBRY[10]) and devices running Google‘s (NASDAQ:GOOG[11]) Android operating system based on officer feedback from mobile device testing over an eleven-month period.

Legal Sniping: Apple says that a hedge fund is trying to hold the company’s shareholders “hostage” in an effort to advance its own interests[12], CNET notes. Greenlight Capital, run by David Einhorn, sued Apple earlier this week seeking to get the company to distribute more of its surplus cash to shareholders and to block a vote on a proposal to restrict the issuance of preferred shares. On Wednesday, CEO Tim Cook dismissed Einhorn’s action as a “silly sideshow.” Apple has filed a 27-page response to the suit claiming that Greenlight “cannot show any hardship” if the court does not grant is his request to block the vote.

For more about the company, check out our previous Apple Rumors[13] stories.